5 Tips on How to Write About Your Journey

Everyone wants to have a written piece about their life. It’s a priceless compilation of all your memories, personal relationships, challenges, victories, and lessons.

Perhaps you envision yourself becoming a best-selling author with a classic autobiography. Maybe you just want to finally start recording the everyday events along your journey. Whichever the case, it’s best to know how to execute the results you want, especially when you’re feeling stumped, unmotivated, confused, or discouraged during the process.

Want to know how to turn your past into a gripping story that you and everyone else would love to read? Take a look at these 5 tips on how to write about your journeys abroad.

1. Think About Your Emotions and Senses

When you’re first brainstorming ideas for the stories you want to write, acknowledge the core emotions you associate with your life as a whole. Be honest with how you feel, and don’t be afraid to bare your soul to find the authentic emotions, even if some are unfavorable. Then, regard the senses you experienced—vision, hearing, taste, smell, touch—to remember the moments that are so clear in your mind.

Do you have a keen ability to smell more than others and associate moments in time with scents? Are you a strong visual person who can recall the past from a photographic memory? Your lack of senses, such as a hearing impaired disability, could also attribute to how you portray your memories. Don’t forget that your emotions and senses strongly develop your own unique perspective, and depicting both with rawness and honesty generates a better connection with your readers.

2. Identify Major Life Moments

Once you’ve recognized the emotions related to your life and the senses you use to remember those events, it’s time to highlight the main turning points in your journey. What were your most difficult challenges, and how did you overcome them? What were your happiest memories? What moments in your life best define you? Aside from recording your journey, the goal should also be to inspire your audience with your development and transformation process.

At this stage, forget issues with grammar, punctuation, or not-so-fond memories that are painful or otherwise shed a disgraceful light on your character. You only want to clarify the exact details of your memories. Don’t try to please people who want to be seen a certain way—even if that’s yourself—because accuracy will be the greatest component in expressing your message.

3. Write it All Down

You have to begin writing at some point, even if it starts out completely disorganized. Don’t worry about making it all appear perfect at first. In the beginning, it doesn’t necessarily matter how you arrange your writing, so long as it’s recorded on an effective method for safely storing your passion-filled words.

Use scratch paper, your favorite journal, an old notebook, your mobile device, or your most trusted computer to record your memories. Just make sure to include every detail of what you intend on having in your final copy. As you’re writing, think about the process you used for brainstorming. To make an impactful message, be sure to incorporate descriptive language, a consistent voice, and as much accuracy with settings and relationships as possible. Ideally, your writing should evoke the same powerful emotions and sensual feelings as your memory does for you.

4. Find a Theme

Memoirs are excellent mediums for new writers because they encapsulate an entire life period in a condensed way to convey a particular message. At this point, you should have at least a first draft of the stories you want finalized. Now, the editing process begins. In addition to reviewing basic spelling, grammar, and relative content, you also have to consider how you imagine everything tying together cohesively.

Upon review of all your individual stories, there should at least be one standout theme that aligns with your message. The theme to your memories could be as simple as a destination, such as the magical adventures you encountered on one of the Azores Islands. Alternatively, your theme could showcase the special moments you’ve had while retiring abroad. There is no single right or wrong theme to have for your memoir; instead, it should be specific to the individual memories and messages you wish to share from your journey.

5. Read Other Memoirs for Inspiration

If you want your writing to have any level of mainstream success, look to those who have already accomplished what you aspire to achieve. Examine their writing style, thematic elements, voice, and overall appearance of the physical or digital copy. As you notice what makes their writing so unique and poignant, try to inspire your own writing with similar elements.

Also consider their final product so that you have an idea of what it looks like once everything is complete. Out of your favorite authors who have comparable writing styles to you, what type of experts did they choose for publishing and editing? This way, you can decide whether or not you want assistance from an essay writing service list or a more established publishing firm. Keep in mind that whatever makes other popular authors successful will be useful for your writing as well.

Final Notes About Writing

Remember, your journey will always be a one-of-a-kind experience. Since no two stories are alike, you can be sure that using these methods will help you create an exceptional written body of work. Brainstorming with an honest lens is essential before you begin the writing process, using your editing eye can help you craft written memories that are perfect for your message, and it doesn’t hurt to look at others’ work for support and assistance. No matter what your memoir goal is, now you have the five best tips that allow you to expertly write about your journeys abroad.